Flinders water tender in limbo, future uncertain

The news has been slammed by Katter's Australian Party leader Robbie Katter as the culmination of a decade of bungling, incompetence and lost opportunities, while HIPCo chairman Jeff Reid hoped it would mean the end of the current management of the resource, which he said had been poor for a while.

A government spokesperson said the review, announced last December, was being done to revisit how to best balance the needs for all water users in the catchment.

They said it would "provide a mechanism to respond to issues raised by stakeholders and current and future water customers in this region", but didn't elaborate on what the issues were.

In his foreword to the plan's performance report, Mr Butcher said it had identified "some emerging issues and matters" that meant he had to bring the review forward by three years.

"The report concluded that the water plan does not effectively support growth in irrigated agriculture and growth in the emerging critical minerals industry, particularly in the Flinders catchment," he said, highlighting the reserves of copper, cobalt and vanadium in the region, for which global demand is expected to rise exponentially.

"It is of vital importance this water plan is positioned to support growth in both agriculture and the emerging critical mineral industries, hence a water plan review and replacement is necessary and will revisit how the share of water is balanced between all water interests," Mr Butcher continued. "A review also provides the opportunity to better define water products, water reserves and trading markets that will support economic development."

Mr Katter said the management of water allocations from the Flinders River had been planned to fail from day one.

"In 2012 the then-Water Minister Andrew Cripps issued a statement telling the world that water from the Flinders would drive prosperity in the region," he said.

"A decade later, the current minister is calling for a review into why none of the expected economic outcomes have materialised.

"What lies in between is a decade of bungling, incompetence and lost opportunities."

In August last year, Mr Katter described as disgusting a new government threshold requirement that would require upstream water applicants to prove their projects would have no more than a 0.1 per cent impact on a downstream user's annual volume probability.

This week he said the review would most likely have implications on the current Flinders Unallocated Water Release, which began 18 months ago.

"Multiple entities along the Flinders River are vying for an allocation of water to develop their respective projects, one being the Hughenden Irrigation Project, which is a community-led water project designed to open widespread irrigated agricultural opportunities to small operators on the Flinders.

"We can only assume that the government's next move is to abort the tender at this late stage and further delay projects like HIPCo, projects that have been fighting a marathon battle of bureaucracy to build mid-west irrigation and satisfy the objectives of the Gulf Water Plan, objectives the Minister clearly states he has failed to achieve."

HIPCo chairman Jeff Reid said the review was both good and bad news, saying the government had inaccurate computer models and licences in the wrong place, which he hoped a review would fix.

"It might delay us for two or three years but if the government does it properly, and employs independent people with local knowledge, there might be a better outcome," he said.

"There's a fear there might be less water in the bucket at the end of it though, and will we get anything better.

"The government's just been giving water to the highest bidder, without considering community benefit or any of those things."

Some 3.64 million megalitres flows along the Flinders, Queensland's longest river, but only 220,012ML have been allocated to date, or 5 per cent of the annual flow.

Of the licences given, between 831ML to 11,997ML, or 0.4 - 5.5 per cent are being harnessed for irrigated agricultural use.

Mr Katter said that represented just 0.25 per cent of the entire annual flow of the river being used for agricultural purposes.

"When you consider that the take-off from the Murray-Darling is 35pc, it's a pitiful amount," he said.

Mr Katter also called for independent, skills-based leadership of the process, "not just the same bureaucrats making the same tired decisions.

The government spokesperson said the review would begin in early 2024.

"The department will ensure the community, including key water users, will be consulted throughout this process," they said, adding that it was engaging with water proponents regarding the next steps for the Flinders Unallocated Water Release.

"I encourage all proponents who need water to engage with the department to understand what options are available."